There has been hitherto known such a printer that an ink ribbon having two color ink belts of black and red arranged in the width direction is loaded in an ink ribbon cassette and one of the ink belts is selected and disposed so as to face a print head by swinging the ink ribbon cassette. Furthermore, with respect to the mechanism of switching the ink ribbon by swinging the ink ribbon cassette, various mechanisms have been also hitherto proposed.
JP-A-56-64892 discloses one of this type ink ribbon switching mechanisms. The ink ribbon switching mechanism disclosed in this publication comprises a print ribbon frame which is reciprocatively moved and vertically swung integrally with a print head, a ribbon switching plate disposed along a movement passage of the print ribbon frame, a red ribbon set mountain formed at one end of the ribbon switching plate and a frame lift member which is equipped integrally with the print ribbon frame and slidable in contact with the ribbon switching plate. That is, when the print ribbon frame is moved in one direction integrally with the print head, the frame lift member is slid in contact with the red ribbon set mountain of the ribbon switching plate and lifted up, so that the print ribbon frame is swung.
The conventional ink ribbon switching mechanism described above has a merit that the structure is more simple and no complicated switching control is needed as compared with other conventional ink ribbon switching mechanisms in which the ink ribbon cassette is swung by using a solenoid or the like. However, the ribbon ink switching mechanism described above is applicable to only a printer having such a structure that an ink ribbon cassette is reciprocatively moved integrally with a print head. Accordingly, in the case of a printer having such a structure that a cassette support member is equipped to a frame and the cassette support member is not moved integrally with a print head (this structure will be hereinafter referred to as a stationary type), an ink ribbon cassette mounted on the cassette support member is not reciprocatively moved, and thus the ink ribbon switching mechanism disclosed in JP-A-56-64892 is not applicable to this type of printer (i.e., a stationary type printer).